Chester’s luxury tour operator and ‘Millionaires’ Holiday Club’, ITC Luxury Travel, has unveiled a new name – Inspiring Travel Company.
Alongside this announcement from the multi-million-pound travel company comes the appointment to the ITC Travel Group of Mal Barritt, who will be joining the business later in the year from his current role as Managing Director at Bolton-based Destinology.
These developments are reflective of the Group’s major growth in the last few years, which has seen it backed by NorthEdge in a private equity deal worth millions, and its expansion thanks to the acquisition of Western & Oriental, Rainbow Tours, Villa Select and Regent Holidays, who will all keep their respective brand names. The sports arm of the luxury tour operator, ITC Sports Travel, will also keep its name, as will specialists Horse Racing Abroad and Chester’s award-winning high-street travel agent, Deva Travel.
“Since our founding in 1974, we have expanded considerably from our core product of ‘Caribbean beach holidays’, and while we will always remain experts in those glorious islands, we now offer clients a much wider choice,” explains ITC Travel Group’s CEO Jennifer Atkinson.
“Today, the world is quite literally our clients’ oyster - from European city breaks to month long Pacific cruises, a private jet to French Polynesia to a tailor-made Northern Lights tour in Lapland. We decided we needed a new name that would reflect the sheer variety of choice we offer, so we’re delighted to unveil the Inspiring Travel Company as the new name for ITC Luxury Travel.”
The new name follows a consultation process which included sourcing the opinions of key travel agent partners, stakeholders and customers for their insights into each brand. Inspiring Travel Company is born from the abbreviation ITC, which previously stood for International Travel Connections. The company’s website will change to www.inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk, with traffic re-directed to that new address from the former site www.itcluxurytravel.co.uk.
Inspiring Travel Company was announced at an event at the company’s Canal Street headquarters on Monday, 5 June, with the new website launched on Wednesday, 7 June.
Mrs Atkinson, of Didsbury, also announced that the Group would be welcoming a Chief Operating Officer (COO) later in the year: Mal Barritt, currently the Managing Director of fellow north-west luxury tour operator Destinology.
“We’re delighted to have Mal on board to help develop our strategy and drive future growth as part of the Senior Management team,” she said. “He brings with him a wealth of experience in the travel industry and we look forward to working together with him to continue in our success.”
As of today, (7 June) the parent company has also been re-christened ITC Travel Group to better represent the breadth of trip styles, product and destinations offered across the complete group of tour operators. ITC Travel Group encompasses everything from small group tours in Eastern Europe to self-catering rental villas in the Mediterranean, comfortable camping safaris in Africa and cultural itineraries in South America, appealing to a wide range of customers at different budget levels.
A new strapline – ‘Experts in the Extraordinary’ - is being employed group-wide to unify the sister companies. “We specialise in different styles of travel, but the common threads that bind our brands are the expert staff who offer exceptional levels of personal service and knowledge to customers, agents and suppliers; fully tailor-made trips to suit the individual traveller; and access to the most exceptional experiences, whether that’s in the realm of the ultra-luxe or pioneering destinations such as those offered by Regent,” said Mrs Atkinson. “Experts in the Extraordinary is a philosophy we deliver on every day as the ultimate travel concierge.
“Our mission to strive for better and to keep our business forward-thinking in a world of fast paced change is what has placed us as one of the UK’s leading luxury tour operators for more than four decades,” adds Jennifer Atkinson. “I don’t believe there’s another travel business around that offers a programme as comprehensive as ours across both luxury beach and tailormade travel and that our breadth of choice and experience makes us stand out to discerning travellers in a crowded market place.”
Company Timeline
- 1974: Caribbean Connection is founded in Chester by Drew Foster
- 1988: Caribbean Connection becomes one of the first tour operators to charter Concorde, with flights to Barbados
- 1989: A specialist sports tour division is set up, taking guests to the Caribbean for England v West Indies cricket
- 2001: Caribbean Connection is renamed ITC Classics
- 2004: Jennifer Atkinson joins ITC as Head of Marketing
- 2008: ITC Classics acquires Horse Racing Abroad, a specialist tour operator for the racing enthusiast
- 2009: Drew Foster appoints Jennifer Atkinson as CEO and sadly dies from cancer later that year
- 2014: ITC celebrates its 40th anniversary and changes the name of its luxury portfolio from ITC
- Classics to ITC Luxury Travel. In partnership with Paul Pindar, Jennifer Atkinson undertakes a management buy-out of the company
- 2015: ITC Luxury Travel Group acquires Western and Oriental Travel Ltd, bringing Western & Oriental, Rainbow Tours, Regent Holidays and Villa Select into its portfolio
- 2016: ITC Luxury Travel features in BBC Two documentary series The Millionaires’ Holiday Club and the group receives a multi-million-pound investment from NorthEdge Capital
- 2017: New brands ITC Travel Group and Inspiring Travel Company are unveiled. Mal Barritt joins as COO.